Landing Eyes for small airports
Landing Eyes for small airports
An affordable system of landing lights, Landing Eyes, developed by a Durban consulting engineer, Gavin Brown, means that air strips and small airports all over southern Africa can now be used at night. The system uses a mixture of stored solar-powered batteries and powerful reflectors.
Brown holds a private pilot’s licence, and realised the need for such a system when working for the Red Cross medical rescue service. It was originally intended for medical emergencies, but has been approved by the CAA for emergency use by general aviation at private landing strips. Although it has not yet been approved for commercial airports in SA, it has been ordered for the small Kisani Airport in Botswana and for Swakopmund Airport, which is used as an alternative to Walvis Bay.
Brown said that only 10% of runways in SA have electric lights and in other African countries the percentage is even less.
The CAA explained that its use had not yet been approved at commercial airports because “we thought its lights were too feint from 3 km away, but they will come back to us with improvements”.
Brown said that although there was a portable version, the system could be left in place permanently with no fear of theft because it was manufactured from PVC or glass fibre, with no resale value. It was priced at R40 000, but if an airport installed infrastructure with buried cables, the total cost would be R400 000.